There Is a Difference Between Love and Hate (You Know That, Right?)
by KianajLau
Summary: So maybe Annabeth just realized she has a crush- the tiniest of all crushes, really, super, duper small- and maybe she's in denial. And, okay, maybe she thinks she hates him. And maybe she does. At least she did. Does she still? - Percabeth Mortal AU. Unknown Fan!
1. Chapter 1

**Annabeth's POV**

Percy. Gods, he was _so_ infuriating. 'Annabeth, what's this say?' this and 'Annabeth, what are we doing again?' that and gods dam 'I'm sorry, Annabeth, I wasn't paying attention. Can you repeat that?' that he'd asked over twenty times in the past five minutes. And why did I have to repeat something, that I had at least five times, again to him? He should be listening. Right now, he was trying to make the right shade of blue. He'd told me he'd wanted me to 'see the shade of blue they are! I swear to the gods, Mom makes the best blue cookies ever!' Sure, it was kind of cute, but it was five times more annoying.

I looked over at him and sighed in frustration, hoping he'd pick up on it. I sighed loudly. Nothing. I huffed and grabbed my pencil and an owl sticky note from my pencil case that had the seven wonders of the world painted on it by my friend, Rachel, and scribbled furiously on it.

 _I hate my lab partner_. I slid the note across to Piper who was sitting at the same table, but a few feet away from Percy and I as we were in separate pairs. She looked at it curiously, but I gave her a firm look that said 'read it or die'.

"I.." she began reading out loud. Oh no, oh no, oh _no_. This was not going to end up well. "hate my lab…" I frantically made cut-it-out motions with my hands as I sliced the air viciously. "partner..? I don't hate my lab partner, I love my lab part- oh…" She trailed off and her eyes widened. I wanted to slam my head into the desk, but that could get Percy's blue cookie serum or whatever on my stuff- oh, and on me. I settled for just rolling my eyes. Usually, Piper was smart… "Oh…" No, no, no, _no_ Piper! "You hate _your_ lab partner."

Percy's head whipped up and I sighed.

* * *

 **Percy's POV**

She hates me? What? How could Annabeth Chase, smartest girl- _student_ \- in school, one of the prettiest, most patient, kind hearted, and athletic girls in this school, hate _me_? She was a tutor, for gods' sakes! Everyone knows only the kids who have horrible learning ethics and the worst attitudes need tutors, and _she_ put up with them for two hours _every day_. And she _hates_ me?

I scribbled on a blue sticky and reached my arm behind the two girls between us and handed it to Jason. "She hates me..?" No. Jason, dude, what are you doing? He's doing _exactly_ what Piper just did. "Piper doesn't hate me! She literally _just_ said that she loved me when she was talking to Annabeth about the sticky note _she_ handed Pip- oh… _Annabeth_ hates you." I smacked my head on the desk and both Annabeth and I jumped. Great, I lost more than half of my pretty blue stuff. Oh, and it was in my hair.

Annabeth's head whipped up, "I don't hate you!" I rose an eyebrow, "You're kidding, right? Every time I say, or even _do_ something, you just glare at me or make a snarky comment about me. I thought it was like, our thing, or whatever, and that you'd make mean jokes and I'd smile and laugh it off, but…" I stopped. That sounded stup¡d even to me.

"Yeah? Well, that's just 'cuz, uh…" Annabeth's tone started out defiant, but her voice softened as she continued. "I'm like," her eyes widened and she took on a slight pout, as if someone were scolding her. Was she, I tried not to laugh, chiding herself? That's actually really… cute… "I'm like, pulling on your pigtails or whatever." It sounded casual enough, but she sounded angry. She turned back to the front and slid the lab tray over to her side, dumped out my pretty blue potion, "H-hey…" and then began mixing a bunch of stuff, making cool smoke and puffy stuff.

Wait… I don't have pigtails…

* * *

 **You guys know how boys pull girl's pigtails means they like that girl and stuff? She's implying she's more man in the relationship than Percy- and that she likes him in the first place. But, obviously, she's in denial, I mean, just _look_ at the title! So, yeah... Two (really short, I know) updates today! YAY!**

 **Anyway, I should probably post this semi-important AN below, sorry in advance for it being boring.**

 **Hey, guys! Sorry if you were actually expecting a chapter. I think I stated in 'Princess Marco- Uh, Margo that I'd start posting summaries or little blurbs in the beginning and just ask that you guys review which ones you want continued. I have a lot to write, so I think I'll be doing this a lot. I'm writing a different Starco right now and a Percabeth one too. I'm going to just be copying and pasting this in all the summaries/blurbs I'll be posting. Enjoy the little idea blurby thing below (above in this case (too lazy to copy and paste this above but I'm apparently not too lazy to type all of this out)! Love you all and I'll get back to working on more fan fictions and (if- no, when- I get a new idea) editing my summaries to make them as appealing as possible to my spazztastic readers.**

 **But yeah, that's already in one Starco fanfic and was mentioned (as mentioned above) in a different Starco fanfic. So... yeah!**


	2. Chapter 2

New year, new me. Yeah, right. New school year, same old me. I've always wondered what it would be like to change. Then again, I've always been too lazy to try.

I walked to school that morning. Of course, I did. My step-mom wouldn't drive me to school since she wasn't driving the twins. Bobby and Matthew were 'sick' and couldn't go to school. The only sick person in this household was the step-monster. When I got to the front entrance I looked down t myself. Denim short, orange camp shirt. My hair's in a ponytail and my gray eyes have been narrowed down to slits so that I'm glaring at everybody. I see a few guys on the football team and smirk to myself. What a bunch of pansies.

I see Thalia leaning up against our lockers. We'd found out our lockers at the Welcome Back to School event at school. Thalia threatened a guy to give her his locker and Piper convinced a guy to give up his _and_ buy her chocolates. Thalia was in the middle. Normally, we were the three middle lockers, but the guy on the left of me refused to move, messing up our entire routine and making Piper have to be next to Thalia. We were all close, but Piper had pictures of her boyfriend, Thalia's younger brother, and Thalia claimed having to 'see his face will make me barf'. Rachel was usually at one of the ends of the lockers, since that meant she could also decorate the sides of it. From left to right, this year, it was Grover's locker, then that jerk, me, Thalia, Piper, and then Rachel. I know and like everybody I locker-bud with _except_ that guy.

Grover and I are actually really close, but this year he said he'll probably be hanging out with his pen pal from sixth grade who was new this year. Rachel and I are pretty close too, but I she has more in common with other girls like Thalia and Zoe that have sworn off men, or Piper and Silena who have an eye for fashion and beauty. Rachel's an artist and she's always painting herself gold or silver and posing in front of the subway stations. Her money goes to some art supplies but mostly to charities.

"Hey Annabeth," Thalia moved aside so I could open my locker. "Our routine's all messed up this year. And you're late. You're never late." I glanced at the clock. I groaned. It was 7:30 and I usually always got here by 7:15. School starts at 8:30, but Bobby and Matthew's day care starts early. I think the step-monster secretly even despises her own kids but only puts up and spoils them to spite me. It works.

I sighed, "I know, it's just-"

"The step-monster?"

"The step-monster." I agreed, nodding my head sadly. "Wouldn't drive me to school since Bobby and Matthew are-"

"Sick again?"

"Sick again." I nodded once more.

Thalia hummed, "That lady… that lady's the sick one." She tapped her finger on her chin. "I wonder if I can get away with murder again," Thalia mused, though it seemed to have a deeper meaning than just a joke. "Thals…" My voice softened. I hated having to talk about Luke. Thalia didn't mean to. She knew he had a mental disease (one that no one bothered telling about because it would 'scar me for life') but when he grabbed the kitchen knife and charged at her, she couldn't help it. Her self-defense lessons kicked in and… next thing she knew, she was holding a red stained knife, with blood that wasn't just from the beef ribs they were preparing, and looking down at Luke's body in horror.

"Nightmares again, but nothing big sister Thals can't handle." I got that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. Her tone was clear: drop it. "Where's Piper?" I asked after a much too long silence, lasting almost _two_ minutes. She shrugged, "Eh, probably making kissy faces at Jace again." I pursed my lips and nodded. It did get gross at times with how much they were in love with each other.

I didn't believe in love at this young of an age, or that much in general really, but I could call it when I saw it. And, gods, they were so in love.

Thalia began making siren noises, breaking my train of thought that would, no doubt, lead back to the questions surrounding the topic of when I will ever get a boyfriend. She walked in a robotic fashion and made her way toward me. " _That_ guy alert. _That_ guy alert." She spoke in a robotic voice as well which would've made me laugh, but I steeled my nerves and turned around.

Gods. He looked even _more_ disheveled than the last time I saw him. He looked like he just rolled out of bed, he had (blue?) crumbs on the front of his navy shirt, his jeans had too many wrinkles to even tell they were wrinkled- they look plaited- and he had drool stains on his cheek still. His hair was unruly and slightly resembled a bird's nest- scratch that, a _rat's_ nest. His eyes were half open as he tripped over his own feet on the way to the locker.

He scratched his head, yawned, and looked me. He smiled slightly, lifting his hand in a casual 'hey' motion, but ended up ceremoniously tripping on his own feet and slammed into his locker.

The guy slid onto the floor and lay there, motionless. I stared down at him for the longest time. Looking back at Thalia, I silently asked her to help me. She just shrugged and walked away, pulling a sandwich from her pocket and eating it. I cringed slightly, it wasn't even wrapped. And Thalia keeps _everything_ in her pockets; from old snotty tissues, extra mints, chewed gum just sitting there, you name it, she's got it. I shuddered, thinking about the time she returned my car keys that had ketchup all over them.

I bent down, turning him over slightly. I sighed irritatedly when I found out he was just asleep. I took the sleeve of his shirt and wiped the drool from his mouth, but when I pulled away, he grabbed me to lay on top of him. I felt my face heat up as I looked around to make sure no one saw that and shrugged him off me, slapping him as well. I heard snickers from around the corner and saw that one had their phone out. They probably missed the part where he dragged me on top of him. How convenient.

They whispered among themselves and, no doubt, they thought the guy and I had been doing something. The guy, speak of the devil, stood up and looked at the girls around the corner. He rubbed his eyes and yawned, slumping over slightly. "Hey, wasuh?" The girls giggled, snapped one more picture, and then ran away.

I slapped my forehead. "Oh, hey." I turned to the guy to see his arm out and extended. And then he tripped over his feet again and fell on me, hitting his head against mine causing me to fall back and hit my head against my locker.

I hissed and rubbed the back of my head. His eyes were wide and he looked really sorry. "I am _really_ sorry about that." Deep breath, Annabeth. _Deep_ breaths. _Deep breaths…_ One, two, three. I smiled, "It's fine, really." He smiled, looking relieved. I gave him a curt nod and he gave a drowsy smile. I held my backpacks tighter against myself, not caring about the books in my locker- I'll get them later.

And when I had turned several corners, I punched a locker, denting it slightly as I stalked, seething, to the library.

 _Oh my gods, that was_ not _a good first impression, New Guy._

* * *

 **So... our flight was canceled and we fly out Monday... Not my best but I rushed it out, so... you know. Lacking inspiration, but have a burning desire to write, so... just okay quality.**

 **Anyway, I should sleep now, it's 11:55 pm so I've gotten in my daily update (I'm in Asia) so, yeah. Anyway, goodnight, I'm tired. And now it's 11:57.**

 **Good night (Watching Steven Universe rn, lol).**


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